Q – We have read that you began a Career Coaching business! What a helpful service for people to use! What kind of careers have you coached people in? Do you get requests from many writers or do people from all walks of life come to you for your coaching?

A – I started out doing resume and cover letter critiques and then became a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and began writing resume and cover letters from scratch. That is my true love (of course, because I’m a writer and feel most comfortable behind my computer). But of course a killer resume and cover letter only gets you in the door, so I expanded to coaching on interview skills, negotiating salary, etc. I’ve coached people from all walks of life – off the top of my head I can think of clients who worked in social work, technology, energy, healthcare, childcare, sales, the military, marketing, etc. Not too many writers (yet), but I also offer query letter and synopsis critiques and have been a beta reader on several occasions. Basically I love lending whatever experience I have to people who are striving to be successful in any field – it’s so important to be engaged in and passionate about your work, and I love helping people get closer to that.

Q – Living in the Northeast United States has its weather challenges. Me personally, I am not a winter weather lover! What season do you love the most and when it is the “off season”, where do you like to vacation?

A – One of the reasons I love living in Vermont is the four seasons – you get a little bit of everything, so it’s never boring. It’s hard for me to pick my favorite season because there’s pros and cons of each – I love the warmth and freedom of summer (not having to warm up your car and bundle in a hundred layers before you leave the house, being able to walk tall instead of hunched over against the wind), but I don’t do well in extreme heat and I look terrible in shorts. In the winter I love watching the snowfall – there’s something so magical about it – and snuggling on the coach with my husband and dog and electric blanket. But I guess I would have to say the fall is my favorite. The foliage in Vermont is so beautiful, and it’s (generally) still sunny and warm enough to enjoy the apple picking and golfing but cool enough to break out the sweaters and the tall boots. Clearly my feelings about seasons are mostly wardrobe related. We haven’t had a wintervacation in a few years because we were saving for other life events (our wedding, our delayed honeymoon in Europe a year later, and now we’re building a house), but most summers we do spend a week at the Jersey shore where my husband grew up. I hope in future years to spend a week in the winter at an all-inclusive – how much more relaxing can you get?

Q – Are the character’s experiences in your book, Friends and Other Liars, based on true stories or are they completely fabricated? Do you get your inspiration for the characters in your stories from people you know?

A – The characters are definitely based on my group of childhood friends, although they’re all amplified to work better for the events and relationships I wanted to craft in the book. It’s been interesting to have conversations with those friends as I let them read the advanced copies of the book. I them to be angry, but so far they have been incredibly supportive and the conversations we’ve had have actually brought us closer. As far as the actual events in the book, some of Ruby’s experiences were mine, butnone of the secrets are true of any of the characters. I think it’s important to note that the more dramatic stuff was fabricated.

Q – What is the grossest food you’ve ever tried? What is your favorite guilty pleasure food?

A – I have a lot of food “things.” I don’t like mayo, sour cream, cottage or ricotta or cream cheese, ranch dressing, basically any white creamy substance except alfredo sauce. So foods that other people love – cheesecake, egg/tuna salad, deviled eggs, traditional lasagna – I find revolting.  My favorite guilty pleasure foods are Lays potato chips, strong cheddar cheese, Dove promises, nachos, and watermelon Sour Patch kids. I can’t keep any of these items in my house because I will literally eat them until I’m sick!

Q – Can you name an unusual talent you have that many people who know you well may not even realize you have?

A – I’m really good at predicting what’s going to happen in movies and tv shows…but everyone knows that because I’m always ruining it for them by shouting out the ending. It annoyed my husband so much that I now have a notebook where I write down my predictions. I just can’t stand not having people know I’m right!

Q – Wine and chocolate or beer and chips?

A – Both! Depending on my mood.

Q – Snowy Winter or Tropical Summer?

A – Both – I know I’m such a cheater but I wouldn’t appreciate either without the other.
Sandy Beach, poolside living? Beach for sure! Although I’m fair skinned so I’m an under-the-umbrella kind of beach person. I don’t think there’s anything more relaxing than sitting in the sand and alternating between reading an Elin Hilderbrand novel and watching the waves.

Q – Morning person or Night Owl?

A – I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’ve evolved into a total morning person over the last several years. If I’m still awake at 10pm it’s a miracle.

Q – If we asked your mom to describe what you were like as a child, what do you think she would tell us?

A – Oh boy. She would probably tell you some stories: Like the time I got away from her in the grocery store and she found me sitting next to an old woman, sucking my thumb and running my fingers along the sleeve of her jacket because it felt like the satin edge of my blankie. Or how she couldn’t put me down in restaurants because I would wander around to the other tables to chat with everyone and show off. Or how I came home from preschool inconsolable because I found out Jesus was dead (looking back, the preschool was a little more religious that my mother intended). So basically I think she would describe me as outgoing and happy but also highly sensitive.

Q – What did you have the most trouble with in school as a child and how did you overcome that? Did any one teacher stand out to you in a helpful way?

A – I had a really hard time transitioning from summer into school at the beginning of the year. I would get terrible anxiety for the first several weeks until I got into a routine and established my friends and relationship with my teacher. Once that happened, I was kind of a teacher’s pet – my mother was a teacher for over thirty years and therefore I was raised to be very obedient and respectful of authority figures, and there was a strong emphasis on schoolwork. What I did get in trouble for was talking and socializing too much. The gist of my report card comments were “Kaela’s a great student, but she is a bit of a chatterbox.” If I ever write a memoir, I think Chatterbox will be the title!

Q – If you could hire someone for the rest of your life so that you would never have to do something…what would it be? (I would hire someone to cook all of my meals – and good luck to that person because my kids are picky lol)

A – Cleaning, without hesitation! I am impatient and always super busy so I hate spending my limited free time on cleaning. My house is still pretty clean because we keep up with it, but all those “spring cleaning” type tasks like washing windows and casings and baseboards and cleaning the oven rarely get done.

Q – Can you give your readers a hint about what you are working on next?

A – I’d love to! What people don’t always know is how loooong it takes between getting a book deal and the book actually being published. Because of that gap, my next book is pretty much finished, (until an editor gets their hands on it). It’s about two best friends, one of whom kills the other’sfiance in a car accident. It’s focused a lot on forgiveness and how to move on when something so unspeakably tragic and complex happens. And I’m actually about a third of the way through a first draft of my third book, which is about three sisters in a seemingly perfect family who all have secrets — all of which pale in comparison to the family secret they’re about to find out.